The EOSC Association has made great progress since its start in 2020. Before transitioning into its full operations on 1 November 2021, the organisation had already developed its internal structures with a Board of nine Directors, five Advisory Groups with 13 embedded Task Forces consisting of more than 400 community representatives eager to shape the European Open Science Cloud Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA). The Co-Programmed European Partnership for EOSC (“the Partnership”) was launched with the start of Horizon Europe on 23 June 2021. The EC and the EOSC Association are the two contractual parties of the Partnership’s Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

The Member States and Associated Countries (MS/AC) are committed to supporting the EOSC Partnership among others by appointing Mandated Organisations (MOs) to EOSC-A, who are able to express views that represent the broader engagement and specificities of their respective national research system.

The Council’s conclusions on the New European Research Area (ERA) in November 2021 – which featured EOSC as Priority Action 1 – paved the way for refining the roles within the Tripartite Collaboration of the EOSC Association (as the voice of the community), the European Commission, and the EOSC Steering Board.

With a maturing institutional framework and overall engagement, the EOSC Association, which has grown to more than 230 Members and Observers, is now in the position to better define the role of its Mandated Organisations.